You are here

Scott Walker's Texas Rangers

It has been a tough holiday season for Scott Walker. The state lost 14,600 jobs in November and a new government report indicates that Wisconsin leads the nation in killing public sector jobs. A November poll has support for the recall of the governor at 58 percent, up from 47 percent in the spring, and next week Wisconsin residents are preparing to file over 500,000 recall petitions to trigger a gubernatorial recall. Is it any wonder that Wisconsin's governor decided to fly to Texas to find a friendlier crowd?

Progress Texas executive director Matt Glazer says the group is the cornerstone of ALEC in Texas, helping to shape "model legislation" in areas such as higher education, healthcare, civil and criminal justice.

"The foundation develops legislation that then goes through the ALEC process," Glazer said during a January 11 news conference to draw attention to Walker's appearance in Texas. He also said that the TPPF helps staff some ALEC task forces and helps to develop and distribute their "model legislation." Separate investigative reports have pointed out how parts of the legislative agendas of both Walker and Texas Governor Rick Perry closely resemble that of ALEC.

Walker's visit did not go unnoticed by working people in the state. Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller and Occupy Austin organized a noon protest outside the conference. Folks in ten gallon hats held "Recall Walker" signs and chanted to be heard inside the conference. "People need to see the pattern. The assault on working families is a coordinated right-wing attack that requires a coordinated defense at every point where the issue of dignity in the workplace is engaged," said Moeller.

Raising a Fortune from Outside the State of Wisconsin

Many in Wisconsin suspect that the real reason for Walker's visit to the Lone Star State was to raise unlimited campaign funds prior to an anticipated spring recall election.

Wisconsin's campaign finance laws limited individual donations to gubernatorial candidates to $10,000 until November 4, 2011, when a loophole in the recall law kicked in and enabled Walker to raise unlimited funds from individuals from that date until the end of the election. From July 1 to December 15, 2011, Walker raised $5.1 million, the most ever for a single reporting period in Wisconsin. Forty-nine percent of the money came from outside the state, an astonishing number for a candidate who traditionally raised the vast majority of his money from inside the state.

Walker's Big Texas Donors

Here are some of Walker's deep-pocket supporters in Texas.

Bob Perry of Houston, Texas, gave Walker $250,000 on December 4, 2011. Perry's wealth comes from the homebuilding company Perry Homes, but he is most famous for bankrolling the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which funded the steamrolling of fellow veteran John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race. Perry's $250,000 is the largest donation to a political candidate in Wisconsin history. He is a big donor to Rick Perry, and he gave an eye-popping $7 million Karl Rove's American Crossroads group, one of the largest single campaign contributions ever.

H.R. Perot, Jr. of Plano, Texas, gave $20,000. He is Ross Perot's son, and has been called the wealthiest Texan of all time. Forbes has reported his net worth as $1.5 billion. He is also a big backer of Perry and the Texas Republican establishment.

John Nau, head of Silver Eagle Distributors, gave $40,000. Silver Eagle Distributors, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is the nation's largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products. He is a big backer of Perry and alcohol-related PACs in Texas.

Margaret Crow, a Dallas "homemaker," is the widow of Trammell Crow of Trammel Crow Co. and Crow Holdings. The Trammel Crow company is a giant real estate and investment firm in 14 U.S. cities and Canada. Mrs. Crow gave $25,000 to Walker and is one of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's biggest donors. Among other controversies, Trammel Crow was sued in 2010 by the New York Attorney General for not constructing buildings accessible to the disabled.

As Wisconsin prepares for a likely recall election, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Mike McCabe fears that we haven't seen anything yet. The latest reports include only five weeks of unlimited fundraising and do not include anonymous independent expenditures.

"We are seeing things we've never seen before in Wisconsin. There is nothing to compare it to," McCabe said.

Mary Bottari is the Deputy Director of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). She helped launch CMD's award-winning ALEC Exposed investigation in 2011 and is a recipient of the Hillman Prize for investigative journalism.

Comments

If Walker was about doing something good for the state, he could stand and be proud and everyone would be supportive. Instead, his actions alone reveal he is less than sincere, his agenda will continue to ruin the lives of those in Wisconsin. The people are not stupid. There is not enough money that can be collected that will change that fact. The people of Wisconsin are not stupid.

Gov Walker and the republicans working with him are to be applauded for there efforts and any amount of money he gets from any place to stop the public and union aided greed that is ruining our country and state is awesome . As a tax payer I am sick of supporting teachers (whom say it is all about the kids), state, and any public workers under collective bargaining. What lies. Its all about there greed, and not wanting to pay there fair share as those in the private work force. We have to pay our own retirement , and most of our insurance and then still pay through many taxes of many sorts to cover there pensions , insurances, and they have the nerve to complain about providing a small percentage of there pay to help offset costs. What greed and laziness. Oh yea I know of teaches who have two expensive SUV's, snowmobiles, boat , up north cottage and then told me that because of the laws passed on collective bargaining that they can no longer afford to work and were forced to retire at 55, what a bunch of crappy crap crap.

A) The correct spelling of "there" as used in your comment is "their". Apparently you hated teachers even when you were back in school.
B) " crappy crap crap"? That's the best you can do to sum up your argument?
C) Check your facts before presenting your argument. Gov Walker appeared before a congressional committee and stated, under oath, that the elimination of collective bargaining in the state actually had no economic impact on the state budget at all"

Daniel, it is obvious that you have not spent too much time around teachers, public or otherwise. It is "their", not "there". Your syntax is lacking in numerous places. But I can see why you have a disdain for teachers. By being educating, people such as yourself would realize how badly they are being exploited by the 1%ers, such as the Koch brothers.
Can you imagine how much those twisted brothers are laughing at low- and middle- income people like yourself get used to vote against your own interests. Unions and worker's wages have been going down together for decades. Someday you might notice the connection. Would be ironic if a teacher points it out for you.
I'm sure those teachers with SUVs and other goodies are actually figments of your imagination (or the rightwing nutjob that you listen to on the radio).

I tend to think that young GOP politicians/vigilantes like Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Mark Rubio,Scott Brown and others seem to be trying to outdo each other as the most promising conservative GOP VP or Presidential candidate of the future and have their jaundiced eys focused more on the White House than on their the state houses. I hope Walker is recalled and wish that many other states (esp.Florida and Arizona) could recall their governors. A pox on Texas money,ALEC and on the Koch Brothers funding of nasty noveau-rich GOP political candidates!